Grilled Halibut with Cumin and Lime

posted by Kalyn Denny on July 6, 2012

Use any firm white fish in this recipe for Grilled Halibut with Cumin and Lime, and if you have leftover fish, use it to make fish tacos! This tasty recipe is low-carb, gluten-free, South Beach Diet Phase One, and can be Whole 30 or Paleo if you omit the Worcestershire sauce.

Imagine you’re sitting on the top deck of a houseboat looking out at the beautiful scenery of Utah’s gorgeous Lake Powell while you’re eating a wonderful dinner featuring this Grilled Halibut with Cumin and Lime. That’s the memory I had when I sat on my deck eating this a few days ago. The marinade is perfect for halibut, but you can use any kind of mild white fish that’s firm enough to stay together on the grill. And the leftover fish is perfect for making fish tacos (if you have any leftovers!)

I do want to say just a bit about marinating fish before you grill it. Often meats are marinated to tenderize, but when you’re marinating fish it’s just to add flavor, so don’t marinate the fish too long. That’s especially important with a marinade that has lime or lemon juice because the marinade will start to “cook” the fish. Because they’re used for short marinating times, fish marinades are often stronger than those designed for beef, pork, or chicken, but you can reduce the spices in this a little if it seems like too much for you. I’m a huge fan of cumin, so I used the whole 2 teaspoons of cumin, and really loved that flavor.

Zest the skin of one small lime. You can use a fine cheese grater to do this if you don’t have a microplane grater like this, but this is one of my favorite kitchen tools. Mix together the lime juice, peanut or canola oil, Worcestershire sauce, onion powder or grated onion, garlic puree, ground cumin, lime zest, and black pepper to make the marinade. Put the fish pieces into a Ziploc bag or a flat plastic container with a tight-fitting lid, pour in the marinade, and let it marinate in the fridge for 2-4 hours (but not much longer than that.)

Oil the grill and preheat to medium high. If you want nice diagonal marks, lay the fish at an angle to the grill grates. Then as soon as you see grill marks have formed (I lift up the edge and check) rotate the fish so it’s going the opposite way. For a nice hot grill, the grill marks take about 3 minutes each way, for a total of 6 minutes cooking on the first side. Then turn the fish over carefully and cook on the second side until the fish feels firm (but not hard) to the touch. Total cooking time for grilled fish is about 10 minutes per inch of thickness. This was perfectly done in 10 minutes. Serve hot, with extra cut limes to squeeze on if desired.

Directions:

Zest the lime, using a mircroplane grater or the finest side of a cheese grater.

Mix marinade ingredients.

Place fish in single layer in a Ziploc bag or a flat plastic container with a snap-tight lid and marinate 2-4 hours in refrigerator. (Don’t marinate too long or the lime juice will start to “cook” the fish.)

When you’re ready to grill, take the fish out of the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature.

Oil the grill grates (I use a paper towel with some oil poured on.)

Preheat grill to medium hot. (You can only hold your hand there for a couple of seconds at that heat.)

If you’re going for diagonal grill marks, lay the fish on the hot grill at an angle to the grill grates and cook until grill marks appear on the first side. (I usually lift up one piece of fish and check.)

When you see the grill marks (about 3 minutes) rotate the fish in the other direction and cook until you see the second set of grill marks appear.

Then use a large turner to carefully turn fish to the second side and cook until it’s just firm (not hard) to the touch.

As a general rule, grilled fish takes about 10 minutes per inch of thickness. I cooked the fish in these photos for a total of 10 minutes and it was perfect.

Serve hot, with fresh cut limes to squeeze on the fish if desired.

Notes:

I’ve made this mostly with halibut but any kind of mild white fish which is substantial enough to hold up on the grill would work here.

Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
This Grilled Halibut with Cumin and Lime is not only delicious, it’s perfect for any phase of the South Beach Diet, or other low-carb diet plans. If you omit the Worcestershire Sauce this can also be Paleo or Whole 30.

Nutritional Information?
If you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into this nutrition analyzer, which will calculate it for you. Or if you’re a member of Yummly, you can use the Yum button on my site to save the recipe and see the nutritional information there.

I love fish and cumin and lime together are wonderful–yum! Great point on marinating fish, too, Kalyn. I've seen recipes with directions to marinate for an hour or more. I didn't have an hour so I marinated for 15 to 20 minutes or so while doing other dinner prep and the results were perfect. 🙂 Thanks for another great, healthy recipe!

Berneda and Anonymous, the salad isn't really a recipe; it's just mini-cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, and romaine lettuce tossed with some blue cheese dressing. I buy Lighthouse Blue Cheese and mix it half and half with buttermilk to make it lower in saturated fat so it's South Beach friendly. It also makes the dressing thinner so you don't need so much to coat the greens.

Shirley, so glad you liked it. And thanks for telling me about the typo! (Very odd, because the url is correct and I didn't remember changing the title, but I must have.)

Jenn, I'm not familiar with Kalamansi, but any type of mild white fish will work as long as it's solid enough to hold together on the grill.

Love, love, love this recipe, Kalyn. I am always looking for healthy fish recipes. Yes, you are bringing back delicious memories of your houseboat trips…ahhh…to be there now, lounging on the upper deck watching the scenery go by while listening to our favorite music. What were some of those sounds?

Wanda, I agree; wish we were there right now! I remember listening to "Reggae Nights" by Jimmy Cliff over and over until everyone was ready to kill me. Lots of other reggae artists too. Also The Pretenders!